25 Most Valuable 1956 Topps Baseball Cards
Just by glancing at the image above you quickly get a feel for how much star power was packed into the 1956 Topps baseball card set.
Mickey Mantle, Willie Mays, Hank Aaron, Roberto Clemente, Jackie Robinson…with names like that how can you go wrong?
In fact, 10% of the 340-card checklist belongs to Hall of Famers as 34 cards in the set featured future inductees.
The only slight knock on this iconic set is its lack of much rookie card pop as only Walt Alston and Luis Aparicio are the only Hall of Famers whose mainstream rookie cards appear in the checkliSt. Regardless, there is no questioning that this set is among the favorite vintage sets of many collectors throughout the hobby.
And in this guide, I run through the 25 most valuable and, man, are they expensive.
Let’s jump right in!
1956 Topps Baseball Set Snapshot
SET DETAILS
340
Luis Aparicio, Walt Alston
Mickey Mantle, Hank Aaron, Roberto Clemente, Willie Mays, Sandy Koufax
GRADING ANALYSIS
400,273
TOTAL GRADED BY PSA
63,976
PSA 8 Population
16.0%
PSA 8 Grade Rate
MOST GRADED CARDS
1
#135 Mickey Mantle Gray Back
2.7%
10,756
2
#31 Hank Aaron White Back
1.9%
7,752
3
#130 Willie Mays Gray Back
1.8%
7,376
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- #1
1956 Topps #135 Mickey Mantle
PSA 8 Value $21,000 – $22,000Total PSA Population 11,929PSA 8 Population 371PSA 8 Grade Rate 3.1% (Set Avg: 16.0%)The 1956 season was Mickey Mantle’s personal finest and one of the greatest the sport has ever season.
After leading the American League in home runs (52), RBI (130) and batting average (.353), Mantle would earn both the Triple Crown and MVP honors.
Oh, and he also led the league in runs scored (132) and picked up a World Series ring.
And his 1956 Topps issue was every bit as impressive as his on-field performance that year…
The headshot of Mantle with a beaming smile atop a background in which he’s making a leaping catch at the wall make for an absolutely gorgeous baseball card.
Because of his accolades that year and its beautiful design, his 1956 Topps issue is the key to the set and one of the most coveted Mantle baseball cards in the hobby.
- #2
1956 Topps #33 Roberto Clemente
PSA 8 Value $9,500 – $9,750Total PSA Population 9,182PSA 8 Population 349PSA 8 Grade Rate 3.8% (Set Avg: 16.0%)Clemente’s second year issue is next on our list and like the Mantle card, it features a great head shot alongside an image of Clemente making a leaping catch.
The head shot is actually the same as the one Topps used for Clemente’s rookie card the year before.
For the first five years of Clemente’s career he was still kind of getting off to a slow start, at least in comparison to what he would do later in his career and he would not make his first All-Star appearance until 1960.
That doesn’t keep this card, or any of his cards from the 1950’s for that matter, from fetching big bucks in high grade, though.
- #3
1956 Topps #30 Jackie Robinson
PSA 8 Value $8,250 – $8,500Total PSA Population 10,858PSA 8 Population 458PSA 8 Grade Rate 4.2% (Set Avg: 16.0%)Jackie Robinson’s 1956 Topps issue is a bitter sweet baseball card…
On one hand, the card is absolutely beautiful and features a fantastic image of him stealing home while legendary Dodgers pitcher Johnny Podres watches in the batter’s box.
I’ve always thought it was funny how closely Podres was standing to the action in front of him.
On the other other hand, it’s Robinson’s last baseball card as he would retire from Major League Baseball after the 1956 season.
Many collectors consider this card to be Jackie’s best-looking card which is hard to argue.
- #4
1956 Topps #31 Hank Aaron
PSA 8 Value $5,750 – $6,000Total PSA Population 11,249PSA 8 Population 447PSA 8 Grade Rate 4.0% (Set Avg: 16.0%) - #5
1956 Topps #130 Willie Mays
PSA 8 Value $5,500 – $5,750Total PSA Population 8,381PSA 8 Population 327PSA 8 Grade Rate 3.9% (Set Avg: 16.0%)Here is another great image of Willie Mays sliding into home, this time on his own card rather than Aaron’s.
The 1956 season saw Mays steal a personal single season best 40 bases although the one on this card was one of his 24 from the season before.
Arguably the game’s most well-rounded player who ever lived, Mays is always one of the keys to any set in which he appears.
Given who he is, it’s tough to imagine him so “far” down this list but there is some pretty tough company in this set.
- #6
1956 Topps #5 Ted Williams
PSA 8 Value $4,700 – $4,800Total PSA Population 8,007PSA 8 Population 304PSA 8 Grade Rate 3.8% (Set Avg: 16.0%)Next on the list is none other than the Splendid Splinter.
There are so many great hitters on this list but Williams’ card is the only one to show him at the plate.
And what a great image it is: Williams looks to be watching one of his towering drives as it explodes off the bat.
We’ll unfortunately never know what a 1952 Topps or 1953 Topps Ted Williams may have looked like but at least we still have other beautiful Topps cards from the 1950’s such as this to marvel at.
- #7
1956 Topps #79 Sandy Koufax
PSA 8 Value $4,600 – $4,700Total PSA Population 8,671PSA 8 Population 438PSA 8 Grade Rate 5.1% (Set Avg: 16.0%)Many players who appeared in the 1955 Topps set saw the same head shot image from that set used on their 1956 Topps card as well.
Interestingly, and for reasons unknown to me, Koufax was not one of those players.
The image from his rookie card would have looked pretty weird on this card, however, so maybe Topps made the change based on that alone.
Koufax was one of those guys who took time to develop into the star we know today as the first half of his career was nowhere near as dominant as the second half.
Regardless, his second-year issue depicts him doing what he did best: hurling what was likely a blazing fastball.
- #8
1956 Topps #15 Ernie Banks
PSA 8 Value $3,200 – $3,300Total PSA Population 6,165PSA 8 Population 200PSA 8 Grade Rate 3.2% (Set Avg: 16.0%)Next on our list is “Mr. Cub”, Ernie Banks.
You know you have to have been pretty good to earn the nickname “Mr.” followed by any team name.
Although the action shot on Banks’ card is not as lively as others on this list showing leaping catches, towering shots, or slides into home plate it still adds a nice touch.
Banks slugged 512 home runs over his career and here we see him touching them all as teamates Gene Baker and Ted Tappe wait to congratulate him.
- #9
1956 Topps #251 New York Yankees Team
PSA 8 Value $2,700 – $2,800Total PSA Population 2,054PSA 8 Population 120PSA 8 Grade Rate 5.8% (Set Avg: 16.0%) - #10
1956 Topps #292 Luis Aparicio Rookie Card
Rookie CardPSA 8 Value $1,900 – $2,000Total PSA Population 3,916PSA 8 Population 254PSA 8 Grade Rate 6.5% (Set Avg: 16.0%)One of the most notable things about the 1956 Topps set is its lack of many rookie cards of Hall of Famers.
In fact, there are only two in this set: Luis Aparicio and Walt Alston.
Aparicio was Rookie of the Year in 1956 and would also go on to be a 13-time All-Star and 9-time Gold Glove winner over his storied career.
A young Aparicio is shown on this card leaping into the air with a huge smile on his face making for a fantastic rookie card with strong eye appeal.
- #11
1956 Topps #110 Yogi Berra
PSA 8 Value $1,650 – $1,700Total PSA Population 4,667PSA 8 Population 285PSA 8 Grade Rate 6.1% (Set Avg: 16.0%)Yogi Berra barely missed out on back-to-back-to-back MVPs in 1956.
That mattered very little in the Bronx.
Berra came into the 1956 campaign months after his Yankees finally dropped a World Series to the rival Brooklyn Dodgers.
He picked up exactly where he left off in the previous regular season, slashing .298/.378/.534 with 30 home runs, 93 runs scored, 105 RBIs, and 6.2 WAR in 140 games.
Most importantly, Berra led the second-youngest pitching staff in the Majors to a top-four ERA.
Take away teammate Mickey Mantle’s all-time great offensive season, and Berra would be the MVP again.
Only an all-time season from teammate Mickey Mantle kept Berra from a third consecutive MVP.
Yet, it was Berra who bombed the Yanks to a title with a .360 World Series average and three home runs -two of which came in the decisive Game 7 win over those same hated Dodgers.
- #12
1956 Topps #260 Pee Wee Reese
PSA 8 Value $1,300 – $1,350Total PSA Population 2,801PSA 8 Population 160PSA 8 Grade Rate 5.7% (Set Avg: 16.0%)1956 was the end of an era for Brooklyn Dodgers fans.
As rumors got louder about the franchise’s impending move to the West Coast, the defending World Series champion Dodgers clawed their way through a brutal pennant race to earn their sixth NL title in ten years.
It was perhaps the most impressive of the six, considering many of the team’s brightest stars were aging out of their primes.
One of those stars was beloved, diminutive shortstop Pee Wee Reese.
Among the most popular players in Dodgers history, Reese had ten All-Star seasons in the bag and a spot in Cooperstown locked up.
In ’56, however, he was a liability in the starting lineup.
Reese had his worst season since before World War II, hitting just .257 with an OPS+ (74) over 25% below the average player.
Following a .222 performance in a seven-game Series loss to the Yankees, Reese’s time as a full-time player came to a close.
- #13
1956 Topps #20 Al Kaline
PSA 8 Value $1,250 – $1,300Total PSA Population 4,401PSA 8 Population 321PSA 8 Grade Rate 7.3% (Set Avg: 16.0%)The pressures of a historic 1955 MLB season got to Al Kaline, at least for a month.
The Detroit Tigers phenom rocked the baseball world in ’55, becoming the youngest batting champion in MLB history.
The 20-year-old was a day younger than Ty Cobb was when he took the 1907 crown.
Now, Kaline’s name was on everybody’s lips.
Expectations skyrocketed as everybody expected huge things from the Next Big Thing.
By the time the 1956 season rolled around, Kaline’s head seemed to be spinning.
After bulking up during the offseason, he looked slower to the ball out of the gate and less likely to run up counts.
This led to an April in which he hit under .200.
As the season progressed, though, Kaline got rolling.
After an eye-opening All-Star Game chat with the great Ted Williams, the future Hall-of-Fame outfielder roared to third in the MVP balloting, slashing .314/.383/.530 with 27 home runs, 128 RBIs, and 6.6 WAR in 153 games played.
- #14
1956 Topps #101 Roy Campanella
PSA 8 Value $1,200 – $1,250Total PSA Population 4,244PSA 8 Population 210PSA 8 Grade Rate 4.9% (Set Avg: 16.0%)Roy Campanella’s long list of hand injuries finally spilled off the page in 1956.
A three-time MVP and seven-time All-Star, Campy was always in a cycle of hurting himself, resting, and repeating from 1954 on.
In 1955, the Brooklyn Dodgers star put the pain aside in remarkable fashion to earn his third MVP award.
However, it was still clear that he was hurt and that there were going to be complications down the road.
Those complications reared their ugly heads in ’56.
He continued to experience sharp pains in his left hand that had already undergone two operations.
To compound things, the 34-year-old catcher broke his right thumb in a freak incident when a pickoff throw to first was met with an unfortunately placed bat.
Campanella couldn’t work his trademark swing around the injury, and his batting average sank by nearly 100 points (.318 to .219).
He hit just .182 with seven strikeouts in Brooklyn’s seven-game World Series loss to the Yankees before opting for hand surgery in the offseason.
- #15
1956 Topps #164 Harmon Killebrew
PSA 8 Value $1,200 – $1,250Total PSA Population 3,860PSA 8 Population 201PSA 8 Grade Rate 5.2% (Set Avg: 16.0%)Harmon Killebrew made cameos at the Big-League level in each of his first five seasons in professional baseball.
It started when he was 18.
After signing with the Washington Senators for a strong $6,000 salary and a sizable signing incentive, Killebrew was guaranteed a two-year MLB roster spot as what was then called a “bonus baby.” He didn’t play much in those two seasons, appearing in 47 games mostly as a pinch-runner and pinch-hitter.
Come 1956, he was sent to Washington’s Single-A affiliate in Charlotte to up his playing time and get the real work started.
Killebrew did major work there, in fact, hitting .325 with a burly 1.067 ERA in 70 games.
It earned him a 44-game stint in the Majors, but he only hit .222 during that promotion with an on-base percentage under 30% (.292).
Killebrew obviously wasn’t ready yet and was sent back to the Minors for most of the next two campaigns.
- #16
1956 Topps #1 William Harridge
PSA 8 Value $1,150 – $1,200Total PSA Population 1,571PSA 8 Population 121PSA 8 Grade Rate 7.7% (Set Avg: 16.0%)The 1956 Topps set was the first to feature presidents of both the American League and the National League.
William Harridge became the third-ever president of the American Leauge in 1931 and for 28 years made many contributions to the game, perhaps most notably his involvement in creating the All-Star game.
Had Harridge appeared anywhere else in the set sequence, his card would not be as valuable.
But because his was card #1, it’s incrementally tougher to find in top grade as many kids used to place his card on top of their stacks therefore exposing it to more damage and wear.
By comparison, the card of National League president Warren Giles, #2 in the set, can be found for a third as much as Harridge’s card in top condition.
- #17
1956 Topps #240 Whitey Ford
PSA 8 Value $1,050 – $1,100Total PSA Population 2,972PSA 8 Population 215PSA 8 Grade Rate 7.2% (Set Avg: 16.0%)Whitey Ford took the early lead in the 1956 Cy Young race with a blistering opening salvo.
The 27-year-old New York Yankees lefty tossed complete games in each of his first six starts, giving up just five earned runs in 45.0 innings.
By the end of May, Ford’s ERA was threatening to drop below one.
Ford’s season hit some bumps, injuries to be exact: ailments that included a back strain, shoulder tightness, and an injured hand.
Still, despite all he had to fight through, the young Yankees ace remained one of the most electric and effective starters in baseball.
Ford concluded the ’56 campaign at 19-6 with an MLB-best 2.47 ERA.
He struck out a new career-best 157 and surrendered only 187 hits in 225.2 innings pitched.
In the World Series, Ford ate the Game 1 loss with a six-run, three-inning letdown against the rival Dodgers.
The third-place AL Cy Young finisher bounced back quickly in Game 3 with a complete-game win that turned the tide and sent the Yankees on to a seven-game triumph.
- #18
1956 Topps #150 Duke Snider
PSA 8 Value $900 – $925Total PSA Population 4,140PSA 8 Population 391PSA 8 Grade Rate 9.4% (Set Avg: 16.0%)Duke Snider was Public Enemy #1 for the baseball media in 1956.
Entering the ’56 campaign, the Brooklyn Dodgers center fielder had a four-year streak of top-eight MVP placements, including a runner-up spot in ’55.
Brooklyn needed each of his 42 home runs to win the ’55 NL pennant and all four of his World Series bombs to finally dispatch the Yankees.
Regardless, Snider had a diva reputation.
And an article about him titled “I Play Baseball for Money, Not Fun” reinforced it.
Writers blasted Snider for his lack of commitment, including his plan to leave baseball to grow avocados on a California farm.
It was a tabloid firestorm.
To Snider’s credit, he fanned the flames in 1956 for another fantastic campaign.
The 29-year-old placed just tenth in MVP voting, but should have ranked much higher, considering he led the NL in home runs (43), on-base percentage (.366), OPS (.997), and WAR (7.6).
Snider ended the year with a .304 performance in a seven-game World Series loss to the Yankees.
- #19
1956 Topps #200 Bob Feller
PSA 8 Value $875 – $900Total PSA Population 2,995PSA 8 Population 226PSA 8 Grade Rate 7.5% (Set Avg: 16.0%)In 1956, Bob Feller’s Hall-of-Fame career came to an end, and he barely held onto a role as the Cleveland Indians’ fifth starter.
As the campaign wound down, it was clear Feller wouldn’t be back.
The 37-year-old’s arm was tapped, and he managed just four starts, with most of his 19 appearances coming in mop-up relief.
It was a depressing end to what remains of the greatest pitching careers of all time.
Joe DiMaggio, Ted Williams, and many other greats of the era singled Feller out as the most talented and feared pitcher of the generation.
Feller’s reputation and charity work transcended baseball, so far that even President Eisenhower lauded him as “a fine example of American manhood.” An 18-year veteran who spent three years of his prime fighting in World War II, Feller led the league in wins six times, ERA once, and strikeouts for seven consecutive seasons played from 1938 through 1948.
- #20
1956 Topps Series 2 and 4 Checklist
PSA 8 Value $850 – $900Total PSA Population 1,331PSA 8 Population 103PSA 8 Grade Rate 7.7% (Set Avg: 16.0%) - #21
1956 Topps Series 1 and 3 Checklist
PSA 8 Value $775 – $825Total PSA Population 1,370PSA 8 Population 110PSA 8 Grade Rate 8.0% (Set Avg: 16.0%) - #22
1956 Topps #10 Warren Spahn
PSA 8 Value $750 – $775Total PSA Population 3,864PSA 8 Population 332PSA 8 Grade Rate 8.6% (Set Avg: 16.0%)As Eddie Mathews and Hank Aaron slugged the Milwaukee Braves to the brink of the 1956 NL championship, veteran lefty Warren Spahn held down on the pitching end.
That is, until one of the worst moments of his professional life.
Spahn was predictably elite during the 1956 regular season, winning 20 games for the seventh time in the past ten campaigns.
The 35-year-old’s 2.78 ERA was his best in a few years, and his 20 complete games marked the seventh occasion that he reached that plateau.
The Hall-of-Famer was unhittable in the campaign’s second half, winning ten of eleven heading into the penultimate game of the year against the Cardinals.
The job was clear.
If Spahn could get the win, the NL pennant was within reach for Milwaukee.
He did what he could, hurling 11.1 sensational innings.
However, he took the gut-kicking loss after the middle infield botched a double-play chance.
Spahn sobbed as he left the field, throwing his glove at a photographer who got too close.
- #23
1956 Topps #166 Brooklyn Dodgers Team
PSA 8 Value $725 – $750Total PSA Population 2,251PSA 8 Population 210PSA 8 Grade Rate 9.3% (Set Avg: 16.0%) - #24
1956 Topps #107 Ed Mathews
PSA 8 Value $675 – $700Total PSA Population 3,472PSA 8 Population 251PSA 8 Grade Rate 7.2% (Set Avg: 16.0%)The 1956 Milwaukee Braves were almost ready to wrest the National League away from the Brooklyn Dodgers.
The Dodgers had won six of the past ten NL pennants, with one of those misses coming in 1948, when the then-Boston Braves took the league.
That Braves team was a one-off, though, and the club retreated to mediocrity for the remainder of their stay in Massachusetts.
Once the Braves moved to Milwaukee in 1953, the franchise built a sustained winning culture, mostly thanks to its Hall-of-Fame slugging duo, Hank Aaron and Eddie Mathews.
Both of the team’s middle-of-the-order mashers ripped it up in 1956, with Aaron winning his first NL batting title (.328) and Mathews adding 37 home runs and 95 RBIs.
Together, they drove in 209 runs and posted nearly 13 WAR, giving the Braves a legit pennant shot.
Sadly, league-leading Milwaukee sputtered to an 11-13 finish, opening the door for Brooklyn to snatch the Series berth by a single game.
- #25
1956 Topps #250 Larry Doby
PSA 8 Value $525 – $550Total PSA Population 1,419PSA 8 Population 149PSA 8 Grade Rate 10.5% (Set Avg: 16.0%)Chicago White Sox manager Marty Marion was ecstatic when the team traded for Cleveland Indians star Larry Doby in the 1955-56 offseason.
The White Sox were coming off their fifth straight winning season, with only third-place AL finishes to show for it.
Marion always game-planned against Doby first when playing the Indians, and the hope was that the trade would end the team’s “search for a #4 hitter” while pushing them over the top in the pennant race.
Doby delivered on his individual promise in ’56, setting aside the previous year’s wrist injury to slash .268/.392/.466 with 24 home runs, 89 runs, 102 RBIs, and a career-best 102 walks.
“Larry Doby, he’s our guy,” White Sox owner Charles Comiskey said at the time.
“We knew he’d come through.” Doby came through, but the rest of the White Sox could not.
Chicago posted a winning record yet again (85-69), but once again placed third in a competitive American League.
Ross’s Take
So, there’s a look at the ten most valuable 1956 Topps cards.
I really can’t say enough about this terrific set as the 3-3/4″ by 2-5/8″ horizontal design, dual-image artwork, strong group of stars, and the introduction of checklists and president cards make it a sheer joy to collect.
Also interesting is the large quantity of variations in the set which make completing the whole thing quite a challenge for master set collectors.
The most notable variations are that cards #1-180 can be found with both white and gray backs with the gray variations being more scarce.
You’d think that would result in a price premium between the two, but really I can’t spot much of a difference in value between them.
Regardless of variations and price points, this set is simply just a lot of fun to pursue which is the whole point of baseball card collecting anyway.
